Telepoint communication systems that provide one way calling are well known in the art, and recently, telepoint communication systems which provide two way calling have been developed. Typically, in a telepoint communication system that provides two way calling, a telepoint communication unit (TCU) has to be registered with a telepoint base station (TBS) in order for the TCU to receive an incoming call. Conventionally, a TBS is coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) via one or more basic rate interfaces (BRI) which support a number of communication channels. Conventionally, the number of TCUs that may register with a TBS is significantly larger than the number of communication channels supported by the TBS, hence, circumstances may occur when a TCU registered with a TBS is not able to receive an incoming call as every communication channel of the TBS is engaged in an incoming, or an outgoing call. When such circumstances occur, the TCU subscriber is unaware that an incoming call could not be completed successfully, and when urgent or important communication is expected, the TCU subscriber would risk being uncontactable.
Hence, a need exists for a method that substantially improves the probability of a subscriber receiving incoming calls in a telepoint communication system, particularly when an incoming call is expected by the subscriber. In addition, it is preferable that the method require minimum change when implemented in current telepoint communication systems.